A Walk in the Park

Today I decided to go back to the walking park in town and try to get some pics of the Prarie Dogs and other wildlife. It was really gray outside and trying to rain so the colors are not so intense as usual but still beautiful. The prarie dogs were not as cooperative as I thought they would be after watching them on my walk last week. I guess they saw the camera and got shy!!

I had my first 3 day weekend in quite some time. I thought I could get so much done but as usual my list only has a few thing crossed off. Most of my time was spent buying, setting up and getting used to my new laptop!! It was a long over due purchase and will eventually make my life so much easier. But the learning curve is steep and getting every thing where it should be has been time consuming. There are several programs on Windows Vista that I am not sure I like. Picasa2 is a program that organizes pics and in some ways I like it but when it comes to using Blogger it is a pain. We will see what happens after I get a little more used to it. I need to reload my old photo editing software to see if it works on Vista. Either that or I will get Adobe Photoshop which will really have a steep learning curve!!


One of the things I got to this week was a new sock project. I have been wanting to start the Tidal Wave Sock pattern put out by Tofutsies by way of good knitting friend Carol. The pattern is free if you purchase some Tofutsies yarn but I have yet to do that. I wanted to use my new Claudia's handpainted Fingering weight yarn in the Blue Terracotta colorway. My first ball was only 44 grams, a bit short of the 50 I am supposed to get. I have found this to be very common with her yarn, more so than other handpainted brands. But once I started knitting I was in love with the project. I started the ribbing on 2's and continued for 2 repeats before being able to try them on my foot. They were plenty big enough so I switched to 1's to knit the remaining sock. This is such a easy pattern to knit and this yarn is so nice to knit with. I got alot done in a little time and should be able to finish sock #1 this week. I am so in love with this pattern I may immediately knit the same pattern in one of the Colinette Jitterbug yarns I have lying around. Once again I made the heel flap a little narrower and longer than usual and it fits my foot very well. My only hope is that I don't run out of yarn before finishing the sock.

The other project I worked on this weekend was the gift card book for DGD #2's birthday. When I asked her what she wanted she mentioned a remote control dinosaur that is on the shelf at Target. As soon as I saw it last weekend I knew it was "her" all the way. And grandma would have just bought it right there and then but it was huge! So I bought a gift card so she can go and pick it up herself and save the postage. But grandma could not just send a generic gift card in a store bought card. I had it in my head to decorate a box or something to stick the card in, something she could save for awhile. At Michael's I found a blank gift card book and all I had to do was decorate it. I bought some chip board accents awhile back intending it to be for her birthday card and I put those to use. I searched thru all my old pics and found one of her that showed her playful side-a clown nose and big glasses!!! Perfect for a birthday project. So here is my final product and I am pretty satisfied. It could always be better if I had access to unlimited scrapbooking supplies. But then again a simple birthday card can turn into a major expense that way quickly. More than a remote control dinosaur!!

Well that is about all my week brought to pass. Well except for the beautiful Hawk that landed on our back fence on Saturday. He was there to try and catch his dinner out of the honeysuckle. All the little sparrows that come to feed off my feeders hang out in the dense honeysuckle vines and the hawk just thought it was a smorgesborg all set up for him. But after I got in a couple of very quick shots he flew off without any supper-at least I think!! I was in awe at his sheer size and majesty even tho he would have snatched up any stray pets I might have had in the back yard. Well this week I am not going to promise any finished projects for next weekend and we will just see what comes to pass. As always-knit on friends.

Nature's Beauty Times 2

Just when I thought I would not have a great picture to start my blog for the week, nautre gives me a perfect subject. About 7p.m. tonight it was just barely misting and I was complaining we needed more rain. All at once my DH tells me that there is a beautiful double rainbow out and I grab my camera and the tripod and head outdoors. I did not have time to really get the settings on the camera right for the situation but I still think these are pretty impressive. The rainbows were both complete arcs but that would have taken a fish eye lens to capture in total. These were the best rainbows I can ever remember seeing and I have seen many in my day. It lasted for almost 20 minutes and had all the neighbors out oohing and aahing. Now if we could just get that rain I think we need!!

I managed to finish several knitting projects this week. The first would be my Scottish Wave socks. Unfortunately the end result was dissappointing. All during knitting of the 2nd leg I kept checking to see if the stripes were lining up the same and they seemed to be just perfect. But then the foot of the 2nd sock was not looking at all like the 1st. When I was finally done I took the socks outside to photograph and I realized the socks really didn't match at all. The greens were quite different and the amount of purple in each was vastly different. I took the socks into the shop I bought the yarn at and they said they got alot of complaints about the dyelots not being true. The owner gave me a 25% discount on my purchase that day and I managed to bring home some nice Claudia's Handpaint Fingering weight for a new pair of socks. I plan on making the Tofutsies "Tidal Wave" socks after seeing my GF's. They are very pretty socks and I think they will look good in the colorway I picked. Hopefully by next week I will have pic to show of the new socks. I am not sure I will ever post a pic of my finished Scottish Wave socks but beleive me I will still wear them even if it is only around the house and to bed.

The 2nd project I finished up over the week was the 2nd Baby Suprise Jacket. I did this one in the same Colinette Cadenza in a grey colorway with reds, blues and greens mixed in. I made the stripes out of some Jaeger "Matchmaker" which has been discontinued to my dismay. I am quite happy with the final product although I still have some room for improvement in my next attemp. I made some notes on my copy of the pattern of things I liked and things I want to rethink next time out. This BSJ is for my new neighbor in my apartment. I need to get some more yarn and get started on a 3rd BSJ soon but first I really need to get some of my stash knitted up into something maybe for me me me....

I really didn't get any sewing done this week since I was up in the city for work for the entire week and weekend. I got to the quilt store early in the week since I felt the weekend might be a washout due to being called in and I was right. I got called in twice on Saturday so I didn't get much of any shopping done over the weekend. I found some more fabric to go with the Progressive Round Robin and a few more random FQ's for quilt seeds. I did get every thing washed, ironed, folded and put away but that is about all. I was searching for some decent dinosaur fabric for birthday PJ's for DGD#2 but I guess dinosaurs are out right now and I could not find anything to suite me. Oh well-I always have that kind of luck being way behind the fashion trend!!

I am so ready for a easy week. Work has been a bear all September but now that all my co-workers will be at work it should ease up. Maybe next week I can get some more projects posted and actually post to the Zimmermaniac blog that I found. I can not beleive I did not know about the blog specifically made for Elizabeth Zimmerman's fans and their projects. I spent many a moment checking that out this week and I hope to be a contributor soon.....

On Top of Old Smoky

These pics are from my DGD's back packing trip into the Smokies. Their Dad took them on a 5 day back country hiking trip and they all did great. Notice DGD #1 is wearing her Wonderful Wallaby sweater that I made for her last Christmas-yeah Maddy!!

This week was particularly busy at work. So I did not get alot of knitting done. I was able to get the 2nd Scottish Wave sock done down to the start of the heel flap. I got the buttons on the Baby Suprize Jacket and will be gifting it very soon to the next door neighbor's daughter who is having a girl. I also found out that my new next door neighbor at my apartment is pregnant. She is such a sweet girl although fairly young. I told her I knit and she was very interested in re-learning to knit herself. I have already started a BSJ for her in a neutral colorway so it can be for either a boy or girl. They have not found out yet what they are having. Again I am using the Colinette Cadenza and the main color is grey of shades from medium to dark. There are short shots of all kinds of great colors including red, blue, green and a mustard yellow. I am also going to intersperse some strips of a matching red solid since the 2 balls of Cadenza are not quite enough for the sweater. I will be working on different decreases & increases than the original to see if there is any I like better. I am doing a simple knit 3 together right now and I think it is working out to look nice. For the double increases I will do a lifted bar increase by knitting into the front and the back of the bar.. It will leave a very small hole that should line up and be a nice design element. I will be working on improving my single row buttonhole technique that EZ talks about in Knitters Almanac. I also got the Jitterbug sweater to it's recipient's momma and she seemed to be quite impressed and promised to bring the baby by wearing the set.

On the quilting front I worked on packing up my sewing room some more. I got another 3 boxes of fabric boxed up and lots of other fabric found its way into the appropriate boxs. I am also cutting quilt seeds as I put stuff away. Quilt seeds are just 2 1/2" squares for a future undecided quilting project. So far I have over 1000 cut in over 200 different fabrics. I do have several ideas of what I might do with this but will not start anytime soon. But when I do I will not have to cut anything!! Well here are the squares that have been made so far on this round of the Progressive RR that I now have to work on. The fabric is from Marcy and Colleen made these blocks. I am stumped at the moment on what to do with this next. I did buy some fabric this week but still don't have a clue where to go with it. I know I have to get these blocks separated out by some thing less busy but so far my muse is keeping quiet. I sure hope my next round is easier!!

Well I leave for work tomorrow morning and do not get to come home for over a week. I will get 3 days off over the Labor Day weekend but I will be stuck in my apartment and that gets old quick. I will take all my knitting projects with me but that only goes so far. And I have to watch how much I knit before my neck goes into spasms. I probably should take my kid's PJ pattern with me as I have a pair of birthday PJ's to make. DGD #1 suggested I make DGD #2 dinosaur pajama's for her upcoming birthday. Now why did I not think of that? Of course that means a trip to Oklahoma Quiltworks for fabric which is such a hardship!!!! I also need to buy fabric for a charms exchange I am doing with my WW quilting friends. You would think with over 20 boxes of fabric packed that I would not need any more for many years but it seems like I never have exactly what I want when I want it. Sounds like an addiction..one I don't want to find a cure for. Well till next week, probably Tuesday by the looks of it....

In the Eye of the Hurricane!!

This is my nature picture for the week!! All week long the weather forcasters were calling for about a 10-20% chance of rain over the weekend. Driving home Friday night we got a nice 1/4" and I figured that was all we were going to get. Then they started saying we would probably get a little more, maybe an inch on Saturday. Well....it started raining in the evening Saturday and kept getting more and more severe. The winds blew, the rain pounded, the lightening flashed. It went on all night. When we awoke Sunday morning we found some areas in Oklahoma had over 10". We probably had 4-6" locally depending on where you measured. The weathermen said that this storm had an "eye" just like a hurricane and the barometric pressure was lower than it had been when it came in off the coast. But now it is back to hot and humid, just like August in Oklahoma is known to be!!

On to my projects for the week. I got a lot of knitting time in this week and completely finished the 1st of my Scottish Wave socks. And I got the ribbing almost done on the 2nd sock. I managed to knit up a quick hat for the Jitterbug sweater that I am gifting this week to Dr Allen's unborn little boy. I still have the buttons to sew on that one tonight but I will get it done and given this week.

I got some good organizing time in my sewing room and packed up a bunch more boxes. But most of all I got alot of quilt "seeds" cut. What does that mean you say? Well it means that I just started cutting 2 1/2" squares out of scraps in my scrap basket. I also cut some out of larger peices of fabric as I was organizing them and putting them in the boxes. But mostly this was intended to cut down on the scraps that have sit there for years. I cut over 700 squares and so far I can not tell there is even a dent in the quantity sitting in the basket. I knew they were in there reproducing and as soon as I tried to cut down their numbers they would reproduce even faster!! It was fun to try to remember when and where I bought the fabric and how it was used in the past. Sometimes my memory failed me completely tho or perhaps I never used the fabric? That could not possibly be, could it? Anyway I was feeling pretty smug until I figured out that what I cut was just the equivelent of about 15 fat quarters. But I do kind of have a plan for a cute quilt made with just the squares and muslin background but for now it is just cutting for me.

I also received the 2nd round of my progressive round robin. The owner of this round is Marcy Cale and Coleen Adair is the only person so far to work on her blocks. I have them hanging up to get some feel for where I want to go with it. It tried to get pics but it just did not work out so maybe next weekend I can get some. Meanwhile I have some fabric pinned up around it to audition them and I have at least one idea to work on with it. I am jealous because those ladies who could make it to scrappy's Thursday nights got to see everybodies work so far including the work on their own blocks. I on the other hand will have to wait until the end of the project unless I am lucky and have a Thursday night off for once.

I had planned on getting some new PJ's cut for the DGD's but it probably won't happen any more this weekend. This coming work week I hope to get alot done on the 2nd Scottish Wave sock. Then next weekend I would like to get those jammies cut out and partially sewn together. I will need to be starting another knitting project but that won't be a problem as there is plenty of yarn just sitting around waiting for me to grab and go......

Elizabeth Zimmerman-I love YOU!

These are the feet of my beloved daughter, SIL & granddaughters!! I wanted them to take pictures of sandy feet and this is the result. Trouble is it makes me yearn for them and the awesome beach this was taken at. Oh well-next year after we move!!

You may wonder why I am extoling the virtues of Elizabeth Zimmerman. I was already knitting her Baby Suprise Jacket and was only waiting for more yarn to arrive to finish. It is such a wonder of geometry, almost poetry in motion. When I was ordering the extra yarn I decided to have them throw in her "Knitter's Almanac" thinking it had the pattern for the Baby Suprise Jacket also. But it did not have it among the 12 patterns included. What it did have was the directions for a single row buttonhole. Her telling of how she came up with the process is pretty funny as are all the other tidbit stories she includes in the book. This buttonhole is awesome although I am going to change one very small thing next time I make it. When you have to add the backward loop stitches back on the needle I plan on adding one less than necessary. When I knit them in the next row there should be enough slack to make one more backwards loop in between the ones I added in the row before. Because there is a lot of slack in the backward stitch cast on sometimes it looks loose in the garment and this also happened with these buttonholes. I hope I remember this fix to try next time. And I already have more yarn to try again that is how much I love this pattern.

The next thing I worked on this week was my new pair of socks. Last week I was well along on the SS KAL for this session called "I Love Gansey" Well I did not!! Well at least in my yarn and gauge. So I frogged it and started a sock with a pattern out of an old pattern dictionary. There is not a name for the stitch pattern but particular yarn it looks Scottish to me so hence the name "Scottish Waves" It is a incredibly easy stitch pattern to memorize and knit and is going fast since I had to knit them on size 2's to get over my heel. The foot may be done back on 1's tho to make them more fitted. I still will knit the SSKAL sock someday but I will alter the hearts to look like hearts or change them altogether.

I gifted my Victorian Lace socks to my current Radiology resident, Dr Anne Munson. I could not have given them to a more grateful person and it did my heart good to see she would love them well. I made her model them on her feet tho and I took the picture in the dark reading room that she had been stuck in all day. The other gift that was well received was the "Sweet Pea" baby sweater I made for my on-line friend, Amina and her soon to be little one. She promised me a photo of the recipient wearing the set as soon as was possible( we still have a couple of month' wait!!)

I have to go back to work a day early as so this will be shorter than usual. OK, OK maybe not!! No one ever accused me of not having enough to say. My knitting goals for the week will be to make progress on my socks, get buttons for the BSJ & get them sewn on. Once I am home next weekend I need to make the hat for the Jitterbug baby sweater that needs to be gifted soon. By then I will have passed on my current Progressive Quilt Challenge blocks and have new ones to look at and plan for so that will be on the sewing list. I will end with pictures of the cutest kittens in the world. They are not mine, per se, but they visit me almost every time I am outside at my apartment. The owner does not care for them well so I feed them and this week I will treat them for the horrible fleas they have. Two out of the 3 were willing to pose for the camera but Cali was being standoffish. She is usually right up there with her brothers but not with the camera in her face......

What a Difference a Day Makes

Now usually I have a 3 day weekend from work. Since I work out of town this is how I manage my life. 4 days at work and 3 days at home with hubby. But once a month I am on call and I get to be home about a day and a half with 2 nights next to hubby. But this week because of co-workers vacations I only get about 22 hours at home. And I have to do it again next weekend. But I figured out you can still get a lot done in 22 hrs. I managed to grocery shop on the way back into town, 4 loads of laundry, watered the yard, finished sewing a top for DGD#1 and cooked dinner. And of course there is what comes later tonight when I get to share the bed with DH for just the one night!!!

Last weekend I started my very first Baby Suprise Jacket. I am working off the pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book "The Opinionated Knitter" I am using a Colinette superwash DK weight yarn called "Cadenza" I forget what the colorway is because the ball band is in the city at the moment. It called for 3oz of baby wool that can be knitted at 6 stitches per inch but I ran out just shy of being done and I had a little more than 3 oz so I had to order a whole new skein and I have to wait for it to arrive to finish. I started it on size 7 straights but I will never do that again. I kept having trouble with my long size 7's hitting the wicker on my knitting chair and pulling the needle out of the stitches!! SO this weekend I went and bought a new size 7 Addi Turbo circular to make any further BSJ's I may want to make.. And I am sure I will be making many more. I love this design. I still want to mess around with the double decreases & increases and to figure out where to put contrasting stripes in. But otherwise it is an interesting sweater to knit despite the fact that every stitch is knit, no purling ever. To me this sweater is proof that EZ was a genius pure and simple. Read the book and discover how she came up with this pattern. It basically evolved from a mistake making a hat...yes a hat!! All my mistakes ever get me is frogging!!!

This is the new top I made for my eldest granddaughter. I am very happy with the end result. I only wish the picture could portray how cute it turned out. I always hope her mommy will take pictures of her wearing it but it rarely happens but I know she loves getting stuff I have made her. My youngest granddaughter is not girly enough to care for this pattern so I plan on going to Old Navy and finding her some T-shirts to send. She also loves what grandma makes her but I am realistic and don't want to waste the time making something she just doesn't care for. I still have some more fabric to make them PJ's and maybe I can get them started soon-after everybody gets back from vacation.

I did get some new socks started this weekend. They are the new pattern from my KAL called "I love Gansey" I am making them in a new yarn from a company called "JoJoLand" They yarn is called Melody and it is a superwash Merino that seems quite soft. It is very delicately self striping in a heathery green, fading to purple, fading to blue.. I am not completely happy with the stitch definition on these but they will be soft and warm and I can always reknit this pattern in a crisper yarn down the road. Again they did not photograph well but I will put the pic up anyway just so you can see how the colors blend into each other. I am past 1/2 way on the first leg in just one day although I sure got sick of knitting yesterday evening!!

I am sure I will get alot of knitting in this week and it is possible I can get the sock I am working on completely done and start the 2nd one. It is supposed to be horribly hot this week so I won't be doing any marathon walking and I am only working 8 hr days so I will have extra time each evening. I sure wish my rush order of yarn had come to finish the BSJ but oh-well. That can be next weekend for sure. I have no quilting or sewing on tap until we do our first progressive RR switch which is coming up fairly soon. Other than that it is just work, work, work and knit, knit,knit.......till next time

Whirling Dervish

What a productive week. Kind of like being bitten by a whirling dervish. Not only was work busy but once I got home for my 3 day weekend I have not rested. I finished up with alot of projects and started on several more. First of all I finished up on my Victorian lace socks. I just had to do about 2/3 of the foot to be done and most of that I did Saturday. With a little push thru I finished before noon on Sunday. I wanted to take a pic of the entire pair but it seems I left the 2nd sock in my apartment in the city, or at least I hope that is where it is!! Then I finished up with several quilting projects. I made the last 2 6" blocks I needed for the progressive round robin. These were very easy and I had them done in about 30 minutes. Now the project is ready to turn over to the next person in our rotation. I also whipped up a 12" star block for a dear friend who was not able to participate in our round robin. She had planned on doing a star theme for her quilt done in blues and whites. So when she had to pass on the project we decided to do some blocks for her. I did a Constellation Star in 4 shades of blue & white. It turned out quite well if you ask me!!

My biggest project of the week was totally unexpected. I have been trading Friendship Stars with the Ladies of my online Weight Watchers Group, nicknamed the "Lizzies" I kind of had a plan for how I was going to put them together. I had 22 from my friends and planned on having 22 of my own. I would put them in 4 rows with all the Lizzie blocks in the 2 middle rows and my 2 rows on the outside. Then I would separate them with 6" strips of a fabric that would bring it all together. On Sunday I still needed 5 more blocks of my own and I had all the 1/2 sq triangles already done sitting on the sewing table taking up room. I decided to get those made so I could clean up the table and move on to other projects. So I did that in no time at all. So I decided to maybe start cutting and sewing the strips together. For some reason I was obsessed and I got the whole top sewn together in one afternoon. I am so happy with the colors and set of the quilt and the finished size should be perfect for a winter lap quilt. I will be getting it to the machine quilter in the next month but it will be no rush because cold weather is quite a long way off.

I also managed to start a few new projects. The first and best to talk about is my Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Suprise Jacket. I am making it for the girl next door who is having her 2nd baby, a girl. I found some superwash DK by Colinette called Cadenza. I am using size 7 straight needles and I am about 12 rows into the project. My wrists are bothering me a bit so I can only knit a few rows at a time. I also ordered some solid superwash DK today from KnitPicks so I may not rush so I can add some solid stripes to the sweater randomly as I go. I also cut out a top for DGD #1 out of the Prarie Girl Pattern. I hope to get alot of sewing done on that tonight. That is after I get my last minute gardening done. I am going to be on call this next couple of weekends and will not get to be home alot so I have to get a few really important things done outdoors. DH will water sparingly but he doesn't fertilize or treat for fungus. So after this really busy productive week I doubt I will be as impressive next week but who knows?....

The Great Finish

Happy Monday to All-

I am happy to report that I accomplished 2 great finishes this week. I completely finished off the Peacock baby sweater set. The sweater went together well and even the sleeves which I had doubts about fit well with the sweater. I had quite a bit of craziness this week at work which cut down on my knitting time drastically but I still managed to finish knitting the last sleeve on Friday and blocked them Friday night. I ended up working 7 hours Saturday but I still came home and stitched the sleeves onto the body. I took a big stab in the dark and cast on 110 stitches on DPN's for a hat. I knit the brim in the solid purple 1x1 rib and then switched to the striping yarn for the rest of the hat. I was able to use the lace pattern from the sweater and kept trying it on the baby doll to decide when to do decreases. I am amazed that it came out well and looks great with the sweater. I went shopping on Saturday night and found a little sleeper that went nicely with the set and it rounded out my present well. I found the perfect little gift bag to package it all up in. It has a little pea pod made with sewing buttons on the front with the words "Sweet Pea" which is perfect for this recipient since that is her pet name for the new baby. Just to remind myself-the self striping yarn was Opal sock yarn and the solid was Jawoll. I knit it on size 3 needles switching to 2's to do the button bands. It took about 2 weeks of spare time knitting to get it finished. I think the newborn size should fit a newborn fairly well. The designer must have had real kids to try the patterns on!!

My other finish of the week was reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" In fact I just finished. I could not start until last night when I got home from OKC about 7. I read until midnight which got me about 1/2 way. Today I had some stuff that had to be done and I finally got to read about 6. I finished just a few minutes ago and it is just starting to sink in that the Harry Potter experience is now over forever. Will there ever be a series of books that cause as much excitement? Or encourage kids to want to read? Even Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia ever caused the same furor, probably only because of when in time they were released. Anyway I plan on rereading them all once I retire so I can enjoy them in closer sequence than when I read them before.

I did buy some things recently that I have to talk about. Last week I went to Guthrie and bought a copy of Elizabeth Zimmerman's "The Opinionated Knitter" I finally got some time to really read it this weekend and I was completely blown away by EZ!! She is my idol. Not only because she was a genius knitter but she lived her life in a way that I only wish I could. The stories she tells in this book make me realize that she was up there with the likes of Amelia Earhart and Florence Nightengale. She was not afraid of anything and forged ahead where no woman had gone before. She loved her husband, children, pets and her craft of knitting. And she wanted others to love it too. I would recommend this book to anyone who knits not just for the patterns but for the wisdom she imparts. I also bought some yarn to make the baby suprise jacket that is in the book. It is a Colinette hand dyed in a DK weight. I have some socks to finish up but by next weekend I ought to be able to get started. I am anxious to see how this mysterious jacket knits up with this beautiful hand dyed yarn.

Well I am tired from to much reading and not enough weekend. So until next time.....

Almost Salsa

The weather has finally turned Summer!! And with the heat comes harvest. When I came home from work this week I found that I had about 15 ripe tomatos, 1 yellow bell pepper and a very small jalapeno. I kept trying to figure out what I could make for dinner to use up all that produce. Suddenly it dawned on me to make Salsa. Hubby loves Salsa, I love Salsa, everybody loves Salsa. So I made Salsa. It was pretty easy except for chopping the hot peppers really really little. And then not touching your eyes or mucous membranes for the rest of the day with the fingers that chopped those peppers. It will probably take all week to eat this batch of salsa and by then I will have enough more tomatos to make at least this much again. Hope we don't get sick of salsa by the end of the summer!!

The weekend went by fast. Of course I did not get all of the things done on my to-do list. Saturday was spent with my dear Scrappy Ladies at the vo-tech. We are supposed to work on quilting projects but Carol and I usually end up bringing knitting. I had both of the fronts of the girl baby sweater set done so I took the yarn to do the back. After getting about 5 rows done and ripping it all back out because I can't count when I am distracted, I got the back started. I managed to finish it Sunday and got the first sleeve started. Today I sewed the body together and finished the 1st sleeve. Since the yarn I used is a sock yarn that includes yarn to re-inforce the heels and toes, I used that yarn to sew the body together. What a nice seam with the slightly smaller guage yarn. Now I wish all yarn came like that. Now just 1 more sleeve, both button bands and the neck edging. Of course I still have to find a hat and booties to knit to go with the sweater then off to the recipient before her baby shower.

This week I had the opportunity to run up to Guthrie to the yarn store up there. It is the shop that has been around the longes. The name of the shop is "Sealed with a Kiss" It is run by a lady from my past in Lawton. I remember her but she has never acted like she remembers me!! I ended up buying 4 more balls of sock yarn. 2 of Opal, 1 solid 1 patterned. Then I had to have 2 more balls of Colinette Jitterbug!! I had a project in mind for the Jitterbug but I am going to shelve that and use it for socks. The reason for that is the book that I bought while I was there. I mentioned wanting the pattern for the Baby Suprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. She graciously sold me "The Opinionated Knitter" (for 30$ of course!!). I thought I could just use the Jitterbug for the newborn size but once home I realized that she wrote the pattern for a yarn that knits up 6 stitches to the inch. Now this is not a pattern that you can just recalculate especially if you have never knit it before. So I searched the internet and found another variety of Colinette that should knit up with that guage and I will order some to try the Baby Suprize Jacket at another time.

Hubby and I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tonight. It was pretty good. Much better than the last movie. Now I am all ready for the book which arrives on Saturday. Of course I am in the City until Sunday cause I am on call. But once I get home I will hit the book with much ferocity. And no one better give the story away before I get to it myself. And no promises on what I will get done next weekend other than reading...................

I hope everybody has had a good week-I have. Last Tuesday we were on our last MRI patient that had to have anesthesia with several walky-talky outpatients to go. Then the holiday for the 4th was to start. Well on that last anesthesia patient the scanner decides to die before even finishing up the exam. We got enough for the scan to be read but barely. When the service guys came in they determined that the worst possible part was fried and at the worst possible time, righ before the 2 days holiday that GE was taking. SO with the prospect of not scanning until Monday I volunteered to go home for the rest of the week. I had PTO's to burn and projects to work on. And I never take a stay at home vacation so I was excited at the prospect. I did end up getting alot done. I kind of had a game plan and I stuck to it some. So some stuff on my list got done and some did not. Some stuff not on my list got done instead like making major headway in my sewing room with the packing and organizing. But I did not get Maddie's top cut out. I did get 1 of my RR blocks made and all my current FS stars sewn togeather.

On the knitting front I finished the 1st of the baby sweaters I need to make. This is the only one for a boy. It is for the sweetest ICU doctor who is having a baby soon. I still need to make a hat but I will put that off because I have a looming deadline for a girls sweater. I really love this little sweater although my pictures do not do it justice. I need to buy a cheap baby doll to be my model since none of the babies I knit for are close by (or even born!) Things I learned on this project was intarsia-there is a strip knit up the back of the sweater in this technique. I also figured out that I could use my sleeve ham to help sew the sleeve into the sweater. I basically divided the body of the sweater and the sleeve into equal 4ths and marked with pins. Then I put the sleeve ham thru the armholes of the sweater. Then I could place the pins placed on the sleeve edge up to the corresponding body pin. I could then anchor the work with more pins and merrily go about sewing the edges togeather. I thought it was slicker than snot myself. And I got the best looking sewn in sleeves I have ever gotten. This was on a small baby sweater but I bet it would work just as well on larger projects although you may have to sub divide the peices more. Or I may look for a larger tailor's ham to use. Any firm padded curved surface that will fit in the armhole should do fine. Pattern was Devan, from Bee's Knee's Knits although I downloaded the "Knitty " version. The yarn I used was Colinette Jitterbug. It was the first time I have used it and I am absolutely in love with it. The hand-dyed yarn has such a nice smooth feel to it for being 100% wool and it is treated to be washed since it is actually sock yarn. The dark cranberry colorway was only very subtly variegated. But the blue had lots of different colors running thru it including some of the cranberry. The colors only ran for 5-6 stitches each time with lots of blue between. I can never tell how hand painted yarns will knit up but this is one time I was thrilled with the result. I will definitely use Jitterbug again and hopefully soon.

I had alot of trouble with my arm this weekend. I can't decide whether I messed it up pulling weeds in the garden or cutting thru 6 layers of cardstock with my rotary cutter. But it cut down on my knitting due to the pain. I have taken quite a bit of Aleve and taken care to not overdo and it is finally getting better!! Getting old is hell!! I also felt pretty ancient when I went to buy a new phone this week. It took me 2 days to get it set up and of course I have not even come close to using all its features yet. All I wanted was a phone and of course it has a camera and a MP3 player. But I actually came close to buying an iPhone. I got to mess with it at the store and it was easy to use and had so much stuff on it. But a smart person does not buy brand new technology. One gives it a chance to have the bugs worked out so maybe next time!!

Once again it is time to post my goals for the next week. I hope to be well along with baby sweater #2, I mean well along. And I want to get at least 1 or 2 more RR blocks made. I would love to have Maddie's top cut out and maybe partially sewn. But we will see how it plays out and I will let you know next time........

See Eileen-here's my head!!!